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It's been one of those evenings at one of the docksides in Brooklyn, truckloads of scrap needing loading onto barges, according to whatever schedule people that run barges are held to. Or hold others to. A young Italian lady's leaning over the open hood of one of the flatbeds previously-unloaded, along with a somewhat-taller fellow. looking in from the other side while the girl holds a light. …she says in a very-local Italian-American accent, teasingly, "You know, Serge, it's almost like I saw this coming and brought another set, you butterfingers."
Conner King, just another young dock worker who spends his days hauling loads off of ships and into warehouses, is just getting off shift. It's been a long day, and he's feigning exhaustion — because that's what people expect. He's supposed to be tired after a long, hard day of backbreaking labor. He's learned to play the part, yawning and grumbling, even if he doesn't feel tired or particularly grumpy. He comes out the gates of today's job site and discovers the flatbed in his way. Not that this is an issue, but this particular truck has been causing trouble all day. "Finally got somebody to look her over, Serge?" he says, glancing first at the man he knows, then at the young woman he doesn't. "Evening, miss."
Sergio gives Julie a bit of a defiant smirk, and seemingly clicks a little fiddly thing into place. He glances back and waves casually. "Ay, Conner, howyadoin?" He jerks a thumb toward Julie, who's paused to fasten something up. "This is my little cousin Dizzy, that you just spared me what Uncle Sal would say about this from." Diz spares a light-holding hand to bap a bit toward Sergio's arm. "Yeah, yeah, you're lucky you didn't lose the freakin screw, hold on a second, would ya?" It's not long before she turns around on the bumper. Then looks and gives a wave to Conner. "How ya doing? Don't let this guy tell you nothing, is all," she teases.
Conner touches the tip of one finger to his temple, then points it toward Julie in greeting. "Conner King. Nice ta meetcha, Dizzy." He glances at Sergio with a raised brow. "Your cousin's a girl mechanic, huh?" he says. Then to Julie, "Good work if you can get it, I guess. I know what Serge is full of. Don't you worry. I know to take what he says with a whole bowl of salt."
Julie smirks, "Well don't take yer sauce that way, like grandmama said," (Sergio chimes in on this,) …"Half a pinch will do." She winks. Then her eyes dart sideways as there's a hollow sound of *thunk* and someone angrily shouting epithets at someone else, somewhere aside of the way Conner just came. Another thunk, more shouting, a pause, another thunk, then a stunned pause… "Oh, shh…"
Conner looks back the way he came, face setting into a grimace, a stony mask. "Sorry. Excuse me," he tells Julie and Sergio, then jogs back the way he came. He does not often play hero. It's really not his style. But he helps out where he can. The people around here know that. And right now, it sounds like somebody might need some help.
Sergio seems to have the same impulse to dash off, running after Conner. Dizzy spends a moment to stare a bit oddly at one of the loading cranes, first at the noise, then up… Then back down. People just about to end their shifts start yelling Heads up on deck! or truncated versions of that as a weighted ball and hook start dropping to the barge precipitiously, a quantity of heavy cable behind it.
Dammit. Why did Sergio have to follow? Conner sees the ball falling, and doesn't see a lot that can be done… by anybody but him.
He's fast, but probably not fast enough that Serge won't notice what's happening. He launches himself off the ground, up to intercept the wrecking ball in mid-air and deflect it from the barge. He has no problem carrying it, but prefers to leave it where it can be found. He lets it fall into the drink just past the boat it would have sunk.
Conner might find the falling cable …almost slows down, he could swear, toward the end of its fall… perhaps the complaining 'vvrrr'-sound is whatever mechanism's filling the crane's winch-house with smoke. Dizzy's started running that way after her cousin, and dockworkers who'd previously been fighting struggle to get smoking winchbrakes under control.
The next concern Conner has is to hide who he is. And the only things he can think to do are to drop his leather jacket — he's always wearing the thing — in the sea after the ball and pull the white tee underneath up over his chin and nose. And hope beyond hope that Sergio won't say anything to anybody.
Julie catches up to her cousin. She tries peering into the smoke with the help of her flashlight. "Those guys OK?" She looks around. "Where's what's his name? Did you even see that? Probably something to do with Captain Marvel, can't believe I didn't see that." Sergio nudges her in the shoulder. "You and your Captain Marvel thing," he finally says.